Air Pollution: Standards

(asked on 7th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she expects the World Health Organization’s Air Quality Guideline levels for (a) PM2.5 and (b) NO2 pollution to be met.


Answered by
Robbie Moore Portrait
Robbie Moore
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 16th November 2023

The WHO air quality guidelines are intended to inform the setting of air quality standards and are not ready-made targets for adoption as they do not take into account achievability or individual countries’ circumstances. For example, our evidence strongly suggests that the 2021 WHO guideline level for PM2.5 is not possible to achieve in many locations in England due to the level of natural PM2.5 and pollution blown in from outside the country. We do consider the WHO guidelines as part of an evidence led process when setting new air quality targets including the recently set PM2.5 targets which support continuous improvement in PM2.5 levels up to 2040. Our priority for NO2 remains working with local authorities to take action to achieve compliance with current NO2 limits in the shortest possible time.

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